Black children are more likely to have asthma than kids of any other race in America. They’re more likely to live near polluting plants, and in rental housing with mold and other triggers, because of racist housing laws in the nation’s past.
They’re more likely to live near polluting plants, and in rental housing with mold and other triggers, because of racist housing laws in the nation’s past. Their asthma often is more severe and less likely to be controlled, because of poor medical care and mistrust of doctors.
“The majority of what drives disparities in asthma, it’s actually social and structural,” said Sanaz Eftekhari, vice president of corporate affairs and research of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. “You can tie a lot of the asthma disparities back to things that have happened, years and years and decades ago.”
___ EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an AP series examining the health disparities experienced by Black Americans across a lifetime. ___ The family thought the apartment would be a good place to raise their children. After all, it was in a relatively quiet neighborhood and affordable. “So many of our children are living in these just utterly disrepair homes with mold, open cracks, leaking, and vermin,” said Dr. Jessica Hollenbach, co-director of the Asthma Center of Connecticut Children’s. ___In Connecticut, poor neighborhoods in the state’s five largest cities — Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, and Waterbury — have high concentrations of kids with asthma.
The coalition began investigating and advocating for environmental justice after concerns arose about a regional landfill expansion and possible links to high rates of asthma, cancer and other diseases in communities neighboring them. Mitchell recalled how, in the mid ’90s, he examined about 30 kids and found that a third of them had asthma. He urged the state to look into what he believed was a clear pattern of disparities.
Black people suffer the brunt of it. Exposure to pollutants — specifically, fine particulate matter — is often by Black and Hispanic populations, while the emissions are disproportionately caused by white populations. But she wonders about the health impact on generations of Black children who have traversed the neighborhood and the city’s north end. While people may prefer to blame Black parents, saying they should make better choices for their families, she points to the years of inequities that have led people to live where they can.
Asthma, Ortade said, is merely one example of how structural racism fuels health disparities that are likely to worsen as Black children go through life — including the toll of toxic stress on their mental health. Segregated or low-income communities are less likely to have easy access to health care facilities or specialty medical clinics, which are predominantly in or next to white or higher-income communities.
Asthma can be particularly disruptive for Black children and their families beyond its health implications, creating a trickle down effect in other facets of their lives. “I think the biggest issue is that asthma is a chronic disease that requires care every single day,” she said. “And what I see many of my patients and families struggling with is the basic needs of life.”
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